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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's coalition administration on Saturday expressed willingness to hold political negotiations with former prime minister Imran Khan, though it criticized him for imposing preconditions while pointing out that talks and threats did not go hand in hand.
Khan asked the country's coalition administration a day earlier to sit and talk to his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and announce a date for early elections or face the dissolution of assemblies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
The former prime minister, who has been seeking snap polls in the country since his ouster from power in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April, announced his decision at a recent rally to dissolve the two provincial legislatures to intensify pressure on the government to hold early elections.
"They should sit with us for unconditional negotiations," Pakistan's railway minister Khawaja Saad Rafique was quoted as saying by Geo News.
He noted it was PTI that needed to initiate political parleys at this stage, not the government.
"Negotiations are part of political process and complex problems are resolved when two sides hear each other out," he said, adding: "If Imran Khan is serious then he should understand that threats and negotiations are mutually exclusive."
Rafique maintained that his party wanted the "assemblies to complete their constitutional term."
He noted that even Khan was driven out of power "in a constitutional and democratic way."
Later, Khan reiterated while speaking to members of his parliamentary party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa he was willing to talk to the government if was prepared to announce the date for early elections.
He added the PTI would dissolve the provincial assemblies in the ongoing month.